Brooms and rocks don’t settle squabble in Tijuana

A neighborhood brawl erupted Saturday, February 23, in Tijuana's Villas del Campo neighborhood after a woman swatted a child with a broom, leading to the arrest of five people.

The affray began in the afternoon, when Beatriz Sánchez Fuentes, the owner of a small tortilla shop, sent her eight-year-old daughter to the home of Tomasa Lucena Gómez to pick up money owed for a package of tortillas, police said. But, instead of paying for the tortillas, Lucerna Gómez shooed the child away by hitting her with a broom.

After her daughter reported what had happened, Sánchez Fuentes immediately returned to the home of Lucena Gómez to demand her money, only to suffer the same fate as her daughter, police said. That prompted two neighbors, María del Socorro Martínez Miranda and Karla Lizbeth Cota García, to come to Beatrice's aid, while Tomasa's husband, Francisco Ibarra Zamorano, joined his wife's side by throwing punches and tossing rocks at the women, police said.

Everyone participating in the squabble suffered minor injuries, according to a police statement. All of them were arrested and await a decision by state prosecutors on whether they will face charges.